NOSFERATU

 Woah, its been a while since last entry, rigth? Time sure flys and i will try to update more often (not like someone is reading this at all tough...) since thanks to NECA, this last years has been a dream for us fans of horror movies and action figures as well with lines like The Thing, An American Werewolf in London, Elvira, The Munsters or the Universal Monsters, NECA is also doing figures of some horror characters from the silent era as well, aside of the Universal Monsters, characters from London at Midnigth and Nosferatu a Symphony of Horror.

Is no secret i love Nosferatu a Symphony of Horror, it was one of the most disturbing films i see in my childhood and with the remake a few months away, many companys has been doing figures of this particular version of Dracula. A few mobths ago i got the Mezco version - remake of theyr first figure - that stands as one of the best figures i ever seen and pretty soon Super 7 will release theyr own version as well, and of course, the NECA version from this particular entry.

This guy is actually tall, just as tall as Goliath of the Frankenstein Monster from NECA, and thats quiet a surprise for me given the shape of his back. He is actually taller than Lugosi´s Dracula as well but fits with most action figures scale. He can stand on his own pretty good tough in my particular case, this figure have some weak ankles articulations and he likes to fall sometimes. Maybe his thin legs and tall size dosnt helpt his stability either but most of the time he stand just fine.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knees and ankles, ball joints like always with really good range of mobility. His coat is made with soft plastic, soo his head can turn and tilt with total freedom and his shoulders also have a big range of movement, tough his legs are very limited. I guess is inevitable with a coat but this is not a character with a lot of deep stances, specially from the waist down.

NECA has always been having a focus of great sculpt, specially on the horror genre, even if 20 years ago the paint of they figures was kinda of, the sculpt was always upstaidng, and with the last Universal Monsters line they show how faithfull to the actors they can be and this is not exception, this is 100% Max Schreck as seen on the silver screen.

The looong face, square jaw, the eagle nose and even the shape of the skull matches perfectly the actors face features mixed with a pretty natural texture and sculpting of realistic hair on the hair on top of his bat ears and thick eyebrows. At first i found the expression kind of boring but watching the movie again, is actually perfect, with the little fangs poking out of his mouth and the perplexed eyes with the empty expression is very faithfull looking for the scenes were the creature is roaming the city of nigth (or the ship as well).

The sculpt of the coat is very nice as well, with a very plastic texture to make it looks like leather and a nice and very natural looking set of wrinkles around his waist and around his arms to show how fit it is. The buttons at the front and the back are sculpted and under the coat it seems he is using a ruffled black shirt. 

His pants are very simple and natural looking as well as his shoes, but the hands are amazing, with the long fingers and knotty and veiny surface as well as the long fingernail, they are pretty menacing looking even in relaxed stand. 

The pants have a mutted black color with different tones of grey to make them look old and realistic while the shoes are simply black, the coat is sculpted on brownish plastic with some darker and ligthr tones to give it shape and volume, but theres nothign extraordinary looking here compared to the skin. 

Since this is a black and white movie, i dont think theres ever been a proof of the actual colors of the costumes or make ups, soo companys usually tend to add the colors they want, really, Sideshow gives Nosferatu a deep crimson coat with flesh color skin, while Mezco wen to dress hi totally in black at first and later in browns with a yellow skin, NECA decided to paint this vampire in a pretty ligth lilac, almost white.

Aside of the lilac theres darker purples around his checks and eyes to enhance his cadaveric face features. Actually the coloring looks too much like a silent movie make up, since they ahd to paint the shadows directly on the actors face soo the primitive cameras from back then could catsh the detaisl of theyr acting. This also gives Count Orlock a pretty ghostly appearance, almost like an ethereal being in contrast with his mute dark outfit.

The hair have different paints of black to make it looks realistic but really, the red eyes are a really good touch since they contrast way too much with the skin color as well as the outfit and makes his eyes looks very bulgy. More than a vampire, this monster looks like a ghost or a living corpse, perfect for the original concept of Dracula.

He comes with a lot of extras (unlike the last of the Universal Monsters): a rigth hand to hold the bottle thingy, a rigth hand to hold the quill, a rigth hand to hold the castle keys and a left hand to actually hold a key like he is about to open a door. Its weird they added a hand for each accesory but they all work really good but not as good as the open claws hands!!! Hands with HUGE spidery fingernails that looks really spectacular, the attack mode of Nosferatu.

There is also two extra heads. Its kinda tricky exchange them thanks to the neck section of the coat, but theyr work really good. One have a pretty icy and serious look, that ironically, looks more human. This is based on his look at the begining of the movie, when Count Orlock is on his castle. This aprticular head have the ears close to his skull soo the hat can fit.

The other head have a more playfull look, with a silly smile that show his fangs and his eyes looking at the rigth. He dosnt looks happy tough, he looks more devilish than cute. Both heads have a perfect paint that matches the paint of the base head.

Like i already mentioned, he comes with his turkish hat: a tubeteika. Its made of pretty softish plastic and have different tones of dark browns mixed with black to make it looks dirty and old. This can be pnly used with the serious head with the closed mouth since the pinty ears of the other heads keep the tubeteika away of his skull.

He also have the castle keys, like all other figures of the characters. The tubeteika and the keys are pretty much the esence of the very first time we seen the character on screen, soo they are the most important items. The chain of the keys is real metal and the keys actualy have different size and shapes tough they feel much more delicate than the Mezco version and fit them on his hand is really tricky thanks to his hard plastic fingernails.

His other accesorys are an ink well and a quill to recreate the scene when he is writting on the documents of the property he bought. The ink well have a very nice art deco design, with a copper texture and paint and actual ink on the top, looks very steam punk and the quill fits perfectly on the small hole on it and also on Count Orlock´s fingers. The grey and white of the quill have a nice contrast with the cooper colors of the ink well.

Then he have the letter he gets from Renfield. A real piece of paper with yellow color and actual prints on it, it shows a lot fo weird symbols and iconography only Orlok and Renfield knows how to read and some urabn leyends says this are real symbols of ocultism used in Germany 100 years ago. This piece of paper is really relicate and easy to lose tough!!!

And for last he have a black....thingy of unknown origina that at first i tough it was an enema but it seems is a bottle? A wine bottle maybe? I dont remember this item on the movie and it have a pretty futuristc and elegant design tough it have no texture, just black and shiny plastic here and i cant see how to use it.

Overall this figure is really really beautifull and different to the rest of the other figures of the character, with unique accesorys and a really interesting paint op. Is it better than the Sideshow version? Maybe...its deffinetly more natural looking, but is it better than the Mezco version? I dont know....

Quality wise, the Mezco ONE:12 version is better on everything, but its an stylized redesign, while this one is much much much faithfull to the on screen character soo i can really chose wich one is better since they have a totally different perspective.

The Super 7 version will be out soon but...idont know if i need it, not after this one since i am pretty sure Super 7 will not be able to do a better job than NECA but in the end, the Nosferatu licence is totally free soo i am pretty sure we will see more figures of him over and over again, specially with the remake next christmas.